


It's beginning to look alot like christmas

by Aramirandme81



Series: A Johnsons Christmas Calendar 2013 [19]
Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Bah Humbug, Christmas, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 21:31:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/pseuds/Aramirandme81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Glædelig Jul!! Merry Christmas! Froelich Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad! </p>
<p>yes I know this is part 19 and it was posted on the 24'th. But ehh Christmas what can you do? :-D<br/>And I do promise that there will be 24 parts, only they will be a bit late in comming because yes Again, Christmas!! Wweeee!</p>
    </blockquote>





	It's beginning to look alot like christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elenhin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/gifts).



> Glædelig Jul!! Merry Christmas! Froelich Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad! 
> 
> yes I know this is part 19 and it was posted on the 24'th. But ehh Christmas what can you do? :-D  
> And I do promise that there will be 24 parts, only they will be a bit late in comming because yes Again, Christmas!! Wweeee!

Anders wouldn’t call himself a fan of Christmas.

Oh don’t get him wrong, he wouldn’t call himself Scrooge either, heck not even Dawn would call him that! Though if that was because she knew it wasn’t like that or because him being Scrooge would make her Bob Cratchit he’s not quite sure.

But fact is that while he’s not about to go: ‘Bah, humbug!’ neither is he about to go around all silly smiles wearing Santa hats or something like that trying to force cheer on people like some demented Christmas elf.

No Anders has a much more practical approach to Christmas.

A sprig or two of holly and pine in the office will do for cheer. Taking Dawn out to a nice lunch on the last workday before Christmas is their version of an office Christmas party and then he will hand her her Christmas bonus and Christmas present and they will have a few days to gather their strength for the New Years rush.

Because to a pr’ firm Christmas and New Years with all the stress, expectations and alcohol is the busiest time of year.

And since Anders is nothing if not an opportunist, and proud of it, he works and works hard all month. He doesn’t bother to decorate or any such thing since he’s never home for longer than it takes to sleep, shower, change cloths and feed his fish before he’s off again.

 

Which is the explanation he give’s Axl when he remarks on the Christmas free zone that is Anders flat when he manages to catch Anders there one evening.

 

“But, nothing? Not even a snow globe or a box of Christmas cookies?” Axl asks as he looks around the flat.

“No Axl. As I told you I’m working, heck it would take me more time getting the place decorated than I have to spare for sitting around and relaxing so why waste the time?” Anders shrugs and pours himself a glass of apple juice and vodka, then throws the empty bottle and carton in the bins. 

Which means that with the exception of a bottle of water and a few packs of spices, Anders kitchen is now completely empty of all things edible or drinkable. Axl knows because as per custom, the first thing he’d done when arriving was cheek the kitchen for food.

“But, but it’s Christmas.” Axl had tried to explain when he’d opened the fridge for the fifth time as if hoping against hope that food would have magically appeared since the last time he looked.

“Which is why I don’t have time, now did you want anything? Or are you just here to cheek if the light in my fridge works?” Anders said as he downed his drink in one.

“Can’t I just want to hang with my brother?” Axl tries feeling his cheeks heat a little.

“You can, you just don’t usually. So I’m guessing it’s either that Zeb finally managed to find someone special and you’ve been thrown out for the evening or you’re broke again and wanted to raid my fridge. So which is it?”

Axl is a little put out that Anders knows so much about him when he can hardly keep heads or tails in Anders life.

“Both?” Axl confesses a bit sheepishly.

Anders snorts, then finds his wallet and takes out a couple of bills.

“You can order pizza or something if you promise to clean up after yourself and you can crash on the couch if you promise not to be up all night because I have to get up early.” Anders says and after rinsing of his glass and putting it in the dishwasher he goes to get Axl some bedding and then he bids him goodnight.

 

By the time Axl is up the next morning Anders has already left for work, the only sign of him having been there is the fact that the water bottle is now missing.

 

It’s three days later Anders comes home and he just knows something is different in his flat, someone has been there while he’d been out.

He takes a quick look around but can’t for the life of him figure out what it is, so he ends up going to bed feeling slightly puzzled.

The next morning when he’s drying his hair after showering he notices that someone has hung a few glittery snowflakes from the window frames. 

‘Axl.’ He thinks and shakes his head fondly. His baby brother never did like anyone missing out on what he considered a good thing. Seems like this is his attempt at bringing Anders into the spirit of Christmas. Well it’s harmless, and they are kind’a pretty as the sparkle when they catch the sunlight and send little rainbows dancing around the flat. No harm in leaving them up, since it would only take time getting them down and packing them up and such Anders reasons and smiles a bit as he heads of to work.

 

Only what Anders had thought was ‘it’, was in fact only the baby steps of a far larger thing that Axl had set in motion. Because Axl has enlisted Olaf to help him decorate, and they spend a few hours sorting through their boxes of decorations to find what would fit Anders apartment, and then they go decorate. Or at least that was the plan, because Mike caught them with their noses in the boxes and wanted an explanation, and then Stacey and Ingrid had come along and wanted to know and the Ty and lastly Michele.

“And there is just nothing there, nothing! No red, green, silver or gold, no Santa’s or stars or anything even hinting at Christmas. Not even a cookie! In fact the whole kitchen is empty, except for salt and maybe pepper. It’s almost Christmas and you can’t even see it, that’s just not right.” Axl finishes his passionate plea for them to help him save Anders from a Christmas-less Christmas.

“Maybe he just doesn’t like Christmas.” Michele quite reasonably suggests. 

“No Anders used to love Christmas.” Mike said and fingered a few of the delicate looking paper hearts in the box of tree decorations. “He’d start making decorations a week before December and once we hit the first...” Mike illustrates an explosion with his hands.

“I remember, his room looked like something from a Disney movie, the good ones too.” Ty said and then smiled as he thought of something. “I’m going to meet you there I just have a few things to pick up first.” He said and quickly dashed off.

“I’ll help you decorate.” Mike said to everyone’s surprise, and even Michele gave a resigned sigh and said that fine she would join in the madness by getting a tree with Ingrid.

Stacey set to work making sure the apartment was extra squeaky clean before they even got started and once Olaf had seen the state of the kitchen he’d left to do some shopping.

Ty arrived an hour after the others, loaded down by bags and took over the kitchen with the declaration that he was going to bake and that anyone getting in his way or trying to steal even a single cookie or taste the dough would be spending Christmas inside an ice-cube. 

Mike went looking for Anders own decorations and once he’d found them him and the remaining gods and goddess got to work on decorating the flat. 

Michele and Ingrid arrived at the same time as Olaf en they got the tree up while Olaf got the food he’d bought put away.

Everyone helped decorate the tree and Axl put the star on top and lit the lights so they could admire their work.

“You know,” Ingrid said as she took in the sight and smell all around them, “I’m not sure I want to leave now, this is much more Christmassy that our place.” 

“Typical.” Stacy smiled but she had to agree, they had done an amazing piece of work. Even putting the already wrapped presents Axl had found in Anders bedroom, allegedly when he’d been looking for the light chain, under the tree.

“We should totally spend Christmas eve here.” Axl says as he munches on the one cookie Ty has given him.

“That’s actually not a bad idea, will Anders want us though?” Mike says.

“If we help with the cooking and the cleaning I don’t see why not.” Ty said then jumped as he got a text.

“It’s Dawn she’s asking if we will be done by works end or if she should keep Anders for another hour or two?” Ty said and looked up.

“Well that depends, do we want to be found here or do we want him to just walk in on this?” Olaf said.

“I vote we hide in the bedroom and spy on him when he get’s here, I want to see his reaction.” Axl said.

“If we are going to ambush him at dinner time we should have something ready though.” Ingrid pointed out.

“Anything truly Christmassy will take quite a bit of time but we could do a stir-fry, Anders loves those and it’s quick. I just need to get a few things.” Ty suggested.

“Why don’t we all go home and clean up a bit and them meet up back here in an hour or so, that should be about right with Anders getting home. Ty remember to invite Dawn as well.” Mike said and everyone agreed.

 

This was how Anders found himself standing in something out of a Christmas dream with his entire extended family watching for his reaction to his flat. 

“I, you, wow.” Anders got out and everyone smiled or laughed.

“I do believe we’ve finally managed to render him speechless.” Olaf said as he clapped Axl on the shoulder.

“I, just, how? Why?” Anders said when he found his voice.

“Dude the zone of non Christmas you had going was just too sad to bear. So we fixed it.” Axl said.

“I’ll say.” Anders said, but his voice and his eyes told that he was very pleased and very touched by their effort.

“Oh and we sort of wanted to ask you if we could have Christmas here this year?” Axl continued.

“Here? Really?” Anders looked astounded.

“Yes. I mean look at it!” Axl said and swept his arm out to encompass the whole of the flat.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll need help though.”

“No problem bro, I’ll come over early and help with cooking.” Ty promised and handed Anders a cookie.

“I’ll bring the beer and wine.” Mike said.

“And we’ll all help with the clean up.” Olaf promised as he slung an arm over Anders shoulder.

“Well heck, it’ doesn’t get much better than that. So deal, and thank you.” Anders said and toasted them all with his cookie.

 

No he wouldn’t call himself Scrooge, but from that year on it could rightly be said of him: The he knew well the spirit of Christmas and would never let one go by without celebrating it to it’s full extend again.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it, and that you and yours may have a very Merry Christmas no matter what date you celebrate it or what religion you are!
> 
> Cheers from Aramir, WHO wishes for comments, reviews and Kudos for Christmas from her AO3 freinds!


End file.
